Expectancy-based mechanisms during language comprehension and their relation to memory formation and retrieval (A06)

• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology ; General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
• Term: since 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 232722074

A6 investigates how semantic surprisal in natural language contexts modulates learning and memory. Consistent with the pivotal role expectancy-based mechanisms play in language comprehension this project explores how these mechanisms influence the formation and retrieval of new memory traces. In four interrelated work packages we want to explore how predictive processing shapes memory processes in diverse learning situations of different complexity. In addition, we explore alternative ways of modelling semantic prediction errors in terms of reward prediction errors in non-declarative learning paradigms.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1102: Information Density and Linguistic Encoding
• Applicant Institution: Universität des Saarlandes
• Project Heads: Dr. Regine Bader, since 7/2022; Professor Dr. Axel Mecklinger